April 7, 2012 – HIGH TECH – With the phrase “Big Brother is watching,” George Orwell captured the central role constant surveillance plays in dystopian visions. It’s no surprise that Americans are made uneasy by ubiquitous video cameras tracking our movements in much the same way as 1984’s screens, or the prospect of countless, effectively invisible drones monitoring our streets from the sky. What bothers far fewer people is the practice of carrying, at all times in their pocket, a cell phone that permits their every move to be monitored. You’d think, given the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections, that law enforcement would need a warrant to access such information. But you’d be wrong. As the New York Times reports, “Law enforcement tracking of cell phones, once the province mainly of federal agents, has become a powerful and widely used surveillance tool for local police officials, with hundreds of departments, large and small, often using it aggressively with little or no court oversight.” Credit for the discovery goes to the ACLU, which used freedom of information laws to survey police departments nationwide about their behavior. Some jurisdictions require officers to obtain warrants before asking always compliant wireless carriers for data on their customers. But in many jurisdictions, there is no such deference to individual rights. Depending on your phone, officers can get GPS data that shows everywhere you’ve been, and they needn’t even tell you they’re doing so. It’s a practice that renders privacy rights almost meaningless. Perversely, cell phone carriers are even profiting from sharing information about their customers. Says the Times, “Cell carriers, staffed with special law enforcement liaison teams, charge police departments from a few hundred dollars for locating a phone to more than $2,200 for a full-scale wiretap of a suspect.” Adds the ACLU, “then there are police departments in places like Gilbert, Arizona, which have purchased their own cell tracking technology.” –The Atlantic

5 Responses to Total surveillance society: mobile phones increasingly used by local police for tracking

We have lost so many rights. It started long ago when people who smoked were told that is not good for you so we will constantly go on tv, the radio and on internet and say this is so bad for you and people sued companies for their own bad habits killing them. No I do not smoke, so don’t start! It is just now some places you can not even smoke in your home or at a stupid stock car race but you can smell all the fumes from the cars… Health cops will get you, then it was seat belts and now our own choices of food or our children’s food…. All in the name of good for you stuff. Health cops, like Hilary otrama. So our government can follow you everywhere, cars with built in map finders etc, etc and of course cell phones. ok enough

Your comment reminded me of the time (about 5 years ago) I was pulled over for not wearing a seat belt while I was on my way to pick up my children from school..alone. I was treated by the cop like I committed a more serious offense, such as speeding 80 mph on a rural road! I never understood the reasoning behind getting a ticket for this. Maybe if I was with kids in my car, it could affect them if I had an accident and was ejected, but how does my NOT wearing a seat belt affect anyone if I’m alone? Does it make me a poor driver? Believe me, I was respectful, but it didn’t matter. I still got hell for it! So I guess THEY know what’s best for me? Oh, and in my state, afew years back, some assemblywoman tried to get a law passed which made it illegal to SMOKE in your car!

While not surprising in this day & ageZ what with the Government deciding that the Bill of Rights is an annoyance that they are no longer obligated to uphold, thanks to the NDAA & other examples, such as the Pentagon informing Congress that they were little more than high priced window dressing when the Pentagon informed Congress that they, ‘do NOT need Congressional approval to go to War as They get their “instructions” from the U.N.” & this despicable list could go on & on. The only positive to this is that, much like Fluoride & GMO’s, it’s “for our own good”. Boy am I glad we have a group of people in power who are so clearly & single mindedly dedicate to keeping the interest of the US citizens front & center in their decision making process! /end sarcasm

Life without a mobile, may not a big deal to some of us “oldies”. Watching the generation behind us, it’s like a extension to their bodies. They have never experienced life without it.
It has changed our world. But at a price, that equals its power.
If this monitoring equipment can be bought, then who now owns it, or will own it? Its uses in law enforcement is limited, and will be even less in the future, as criminals and terrorists find ways to manipulate its technology.
The other thing about all this is that it relies totally on electricity, not something I would bet my life savings on, (that we will never be without it.)

I bet they montior this site, and we we are saying! Privacy is obsolete! Privacy is an illusion! The establisment can and does what ever they want. What we forget is that there are more of us then them…and it would take just one to begin to take back our rights. Look at the recent sit in on wall street! Thay can’t arrest everyone!